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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:
Ms. Cristin Arseculeratne

Ruwan's interest in aerospace began in elementary school when he studied the Apollo space program. He pursued this interest at the University of Texas at Austin where he studied aerospace engineering, earning his Bachelor of Science in 1991 and his Master of Science in 1993. While in the Masters Program at Texas, Ruwan was a research assistant for Dr. Stelios Kyriakides. He assisted Dr. Kyriakides in the analytical study of composite materials and in the propagation instabilities in long shallow arch panels. These studies produced two journal articles, "Propagation Instabilities in Long Shallow Tubes", ASCE, J. of Engineering Mechanics, March 1993, and "On the Compressive Failure of Fiber Reinforced Composites" Int'l Journal of Solids and Structures 32, No. 6/7, 689-738,1995
Ruwan joined Orbital Sciences Corporation in 1993 and began working on the APEX and SEASTAR satellites as a mechanical engineer. In 1995, he joined Orbital's Taurus Launch program for its second mission: Launching the GFO/ORBCOMM payload. He has worked on each of the successive Taurus Launch missions (STEX, KOMPSAT/ACRIMSAT, MTI, ORBVIEW-4/QuikTOMS, and ROCSAT-2). Ruwan's focus has centered largely on Fairings, Separation Systems, Payload Isolation Systems, Mass Property Analysis, and Structural Analysis. Additionally, he is a primary customer contact, working with clients to configure how the Payload physically interfaces with the Launch Vehicle. Ruwan has been awarded Special Recognition for Outstanding Service Award multiple times during his tenure at Orbital Sciences Corporation, and he currently holds the position of Principle Engineer.